I know this is not what most of you are into but my needs are a little different. I would like to try and raise my car about 1/2" to 1" in hight. The 5.1" clearance is just not enough for the roads I have to drive in Mexico and other places. I am tired of hitting the front bottom of my car on those cement things in parking lots. I am not interested in going to an air system because of cost. I am already going to be installing taller tires when mine wear out. What I was hoping is to find a way to add a spacer to my springs, taller springs, or maybe a higher spring rate. I don't have good feelings about those things that are added between the coils of a spring to raise a car. The spring companies I have contacted ether won't build anything for me or want more money than I can commit to for springs. I even tried to find the specs on the stock springs hoping I could compare them to other stock springs and find a taller set but no luck.

Thanks, Al

 

I have been doing a lot of thinking and looking at different things. What I have decided to try and do is just raise the front of the car about 1/2 inch. This will raise the front where I am having the most problems and make the car set a little more level. The new tires will give me enough clearance for most of my driving needs. I am thinking of building a 1/2" spacer to go between the top of the front strut and the underside of the strut mount. I will have to remove the bolt studs that are welded to the top of the strut and replace them with some longer bolts, grade 5 or 8 bolts. I think this will be the easiest way to raise the front.

Al

 

If you go to 225/60-16 tires (and stay on stock +45 offset wheels), you will get almost 1" of additional lift over stock. Your speedo will be off, but the tires should fit fine and you will get the lift you want. Don't expect it to handle like a slot-car. (This would all assume stock springs.)

 

Thanks, I have already done the math on the tires and and it's closer to 3/4' more hight. The stock Bridgstone tires are suppose to be 24.9" and the Michelins are 26.5" tall. The speed error is really not too much. My car stock seems to be reading about 1 MPH fast now. The math shows about 4 MPH difference so I should be about 3MPH slow on the speedo. I was wondering if there is a way to get the computer or speedo reprogramed for the taller tires? I am planning on adding some better front and rear sway bars later to help the handling. It's not going to be a race car but more of a daily driver set up for driving on some poor roads. The Michelin tires I am getting are the Hydroedge 225/60TR16. These are a great all around good handling tire with long mileage that is also very good in the rain. Compared to the stock tires these are better in every way. Anyway, I think this will be a good start in getting the car set up for my needs. I just need to make a templet so I can make the spacers. In looking at some of the photos of the older xB's. It looks like there was a steel plate that went on the upper strut mount just before you put the nuts on. If so maybe I could use this for a templet? Something else for me to work out.

Al

 

all ya need for the rear is a coil spring spacer. it sits on top of or on the bottom of the springs.

for the front you would need strut spacers.

they make em for a ton of trucks and i'm sure could be made for semi cheap.

 

maybe not in every way. they are 25% heavier so your adding 20lbs of unsprung weight to the car...




...might matter to you, might not, just saying.

 

Yes but the aluminum wheels will more then make up the difference in weight. The wheels I have been looking at are 8-10 pounds lighter than stock wheels. So the unsprung weight will be less than stock tires and wheels. If you go to the tirerack.com and look at the reviews and ratings of the stock tires and compare them to the Michelins you will see it's like night and day.

Al

 

i don't doubt that one bit, with bridgestone as the stock tires i think pulling them off and running on bare rims is probably a step up...